


i weep alone (of shadows on the stars)

by peachyteabuck



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst and Feels, Crushes, M/M, Unrequited Love, Witches, casual witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 00:20:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11909283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachyteabuck/pseuds/peachyteabuck
Summary: so that’s why he’s huddled in a light pullover from middle school under a play structure in the middle of a sixty-degree saturday night in the middle of september when he should be studying or, god forbid, sleeping.





	i weep alone (of shadows on the stars)

**Author's Note:**

> title from sure on this shining night, originally composed by Morten Lauridsen. my fav version is by the university of utah singers 
> 
> please don't hate on me if this is terrible, it's my first time writing something since a creative writing class last year and i'm also deep into sensory overload rn.

tyler knows two things about why he’s currently crying at an empty intersection, waiting for the red hand to change to a walking white person;

 

one: it’s three in the morning, he’s tired. he wants to sleep - but he can’t, he has to go do this.

 

two: he misses her, misses her too damn much, and can’t let his yearly ritual go to waste just because she left him.

 

he wipes his eyes with the sleeves of his thrift store hoodie, shifting his barely-filled backpack awkwardly. he tries to avoid smudging the sigil he had drawn on his arm in eyeliner before leaving the house. the tube said “waterproof,” but that was obviously a lie. tyler’s lanky body pushes itself forward as he notices the shadow in the puddles changes from blurry red to something greyish (ohio potholes are uniquely disgusting). he can hear the base of some rap song coming from some grey jeep as his old shoes quietly slap against the pavement. 

 

he can hear her voice when he feels the wetness seep between his toes.  _ i told you to bring rain boots...those old things are not going to protect you from all that outside _ .

 

he shakes his head, the shaved sides hitting the fabric of his hood. tyler can’t be, shouldn’t be, thinking of her now. if he can just perform this spell and get it over with...he’ll be able to sleep for the next three-hundred and sixty-five (it’s an election year) days. 

 

he reaches the expansive playground before hearing the sound of thunder too close for comfort. he pulls back the dark hood, looking up to the sky and realizing the shine of the moon is now covered in thick clouds. 

 

tyler takes shelter under some sort of platform with small holes in it, sitting in wait. he tries to keep his backpack dry, worrying about the delicate contents (including his phone and “witch junk,” as she called it). 

 

twenty minutes pass before the skinny boy hears someone running down the middle of the adjacent soccer field, rubber soles violently slashing through puddles. while tyler made extreme efforts to remain unseen by neighbors, making noise seems to be the other’s mission. he doesn’t, however, scream, as per request by tyler. 

 

(the cops, church-going neighbors, and screaming babies are the last thing he needs right now.)

 

tyler doesn’t look up until the out-of-breath gasps seem near and he can feel the heat of the other boy, who speaks before he can.

 

“hey ty,” tyler looks up at him, the devastation visibly sad on his face. “sorry about being late...i got caught up in-”

 

“whatever.” tyler cuts him off. he’s sad, he’s annoyed, and he just wants it to stop fucking  _ raining. _ “josh, hand me the candles”

 

josh obliges, taking them and his phone out of the pockets of his own backpack. a fat raindrop lands on the wick of one of the beeswax candles, and josh starts to question trying to light anything on fire. 

 

“you do know..” he gestures to the water seeping through the holes of the play structure, before realizing an obvious solution. tyler’s eyes and bags from sleepless nights bear into josh as he moves around, slipping off his extra-large, deep fuchsia rain coat and placing it flat onto the holey surface on top of them. 

 

for the first time between the two of them, tyler’s tense energy breaks and he almost cracks a smile as he takes out a bundle of sage and a light with almost no fluid left - something he’d forgotten when he’d left the house. he makes a mental note to stop the twenty-four hour drug store on his way home so he can pick up another one.

 

josh sits criss-cross applesauce, silent and focussed on the other boy. tyler takes out a switchblade next and pulls up his sleeve to reveal the sigil. josh sucks in a deep breath, terrified of what tyler will do next, but lets it out when tyler merely begins carving it underneath each candle.

 

in all truth, josh has no idea what tyler is doing. he’s bookish, sure, and quiet, but in a different way than tyler. tyler’s focussed, determined, mysterious. josh would rather other people say things than him, and therefore keeps his thoughts to himself most of the time. 

 

the only reason he’s huddled in a light pullover from middle school under a play structure in the middle of a sixty-degree saturday night in the middle of september when he should be studying or, god forbid, sleeping is…

 

actually, josh can’t find one. or at least, a logical one. he’d liked tyler since the beginning of last school year, and they’d bonded over being the quietest kids in class, the kids nobody wants to paired with, and their shared hatred of their chemistry teacher. 

 

on a normal tuesday a few weeks prior, tyler had turned to josh with an unusual request.

 

“can you be my cover for this thing i have to do in the park?” tyler asked, not looking up from the board in their second shared class of the day, honors anatomy. 

 

josh agreed without question, receiving a date, time, and location a piece of scratch paper on his desk three days later.

 

so that’s why he’s huddled in a light pullover from middle school under a play structure in the middle of a sixty-degree saturday night in the middle of september when he should be studying or, god forbid, sleeping. because he’s in love with tyler, but tyler won’t seem to give him the time of day. 

 

this, of course, couldn’t be more untrue. but tyler can’t be thinking about his feelings right now. this spell is a once-a-year opportunity...and he just wants to do it right. 

 

just as tyler sticks the sage bundle into the small mound josh made out of wood chips and dirt, the rain subsides, leaving behind only the smell of storm. tyler looks up at josh and gives him a big toothy grin, which josh unconsciously matches. 

 

“i’m guessing that’s a good sign,” josh says quietly.

 

tyler’s enthusiastic eyes meet josh’s, and he replies with all the happiness of a happy birthday card from an aunt you’ve never met. “oh, it’s a great one.”

**Author's Note:**

> pls lemme know whatcu think!! i feel like this is a better and more productive coping mechanism than crying/watching criminal minds or ncis


End file.
